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The pre-dawn St. Patrick’s Day countdown sounded the same on every square along the parade route.

“10, 9, 8 ... ”

The tone carried an unmistakable edge, however.

On Calhoun, the final seconds before the square’s 6 a.m. opening had a, “Let’s get ready to RUUMMBBLE!” feel.

At Oglethorpe, the would-be squatters heard, “On your marks. Get set … ” in their heads between the numbers.

In Chippewa, the count was hushed as the leaders of several zealous groups gathered to negotiate the claims.

On no square did the countdown sound as celebratory as it should. Where New Year’s Eve has kissing and singing, St. Patrick’s Day is cussing and swinging.

“It’s gotten ugly,” Oglethorpe Square regular Ron Garing said. “I doubt this is what the city intended when they changed the law.”

City officials hoped to address safety concerns and curb noise, trash and congestion in outlawing the pre-St. Patrick’s takeover of the squares a few years back.

The parade had officially gone from local novelty to big-time sensation. A few hundred square feet of grass in the six squares along the route was suddenly every Savannah leprechaun’s pot o’ gold. Revelers started showing up 36 to 48 hours in advance.

The city weighed its options to stem the trend and settled on the 6 a.m. rule. Half a decade later, the plan needs to be tweaked again, as it’s failed to produce the peace and quiet many hoped.

“You should hear the roar when the clock strikes 6 (a.m.)”, Chippewa squatter Jason Hagan said. “There’s no mistaking when the squares open. And five seconds later, it’s all over.”

And the grousing begins.

The hottest debates in the squares during Saturday’s parade had nothing to do with Bloody Mary recipes or the coolest float.

From curbside to statue shadows, discussions centered on solutions to the squares squabbles.

The city should dash the 6 a.m. dash, most agreed. Finding consensus on a new St. Patrick’s squares policy was much more fleeting.

Some advocated for the city butting out all together. Let the squatters set up the night before like they used to. Let them camp out, Black Friday style. Patrol the route throughout the night. The police do that anyway to keep the squares clear until 6 a.m.

Other square-goers wondered if the city ought to get more involved. Divide up the prime parade-viewing spaces in each square and issue permits for them in advance, they said.

The flaw in that system is in the permit issuing process. Should the city set an application deadline and hold a lottery? Make it a first-come, first-serve arrangement? Lease or auction off the spaces for a price?

The exchange of ideas got nearly as heated as the 6 a.m. square-down.

The dissension came as no surprise. City officials received the same blowback when they floated their own grid-and-permit system a few years back.

“We were all ready to go but as St. Patrick’s Day approached we got resistance,” city of Savannah spokesman Bret Bell said. “Six a.m. was the compromise. There was some resistance to that, but it was the lesser of all the evils.”

Investing time is one thing, proponents said, investing dollars is another. And the revenue would help the city offset costs like post-parade cleanup and, of course, paying the referees who would have to be present on each square to make sure the revelers honored the permits.

“Every year I ask myself, ‘What are we going to do with all our stuff that we have been preparing if we can’t get a spot?’” Wright Square regular Kathleen Stapleton said. “Renting spots would ensure locals who have been setting up in the same place for decades would continue to get their spots.”

Other square squatters decry the notion of greater regulation by the city. Savannah reaps great financial rewards from the St. Patrick’s Day Parade through increased sales tax revenues, they said, and doesn’t need a new revenue stream.

Making the permits free and distributing them by lottery or on a first-come, first-serve basis has its drawbacks. A lottery is too risky — “I’d rather fight for my spot at 6 a.m. than risk losing it through a drawing” was a familiar refrain — and first-come, first-serve would only succeed in relocating the space jockeying from the squares’ fringes to the steps of City Hall.

“There’s no easy solution,” Hagan said. “They have to decide, and we’ll all live with it.”

Adam Van Brimmer’s column runs each Monday. He blogs several days a week at savannahnow.com and is a social-media regular — @avanbrimmer on Twitter and Daddy Warbucks on Facebook.

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If the spaces were rented, then wealthier people would have the advantage. Can you imagine what it be like if the best spots were taken by banker and lawyers? Since the squares are maintained by everyone's tax dollars, they should remain free to city residents.

The 6am dash is a great spectacle. I don't see a better system. People get amped for it, there's excitement in the air, and then everyone is putting up tents within 90 seconds. I show up just as early to get a spot on the sidewalk and then watch the square dash as I sip my irish coffee. Can't wait til next year!!!!